I am growing bell peppers for the third year in my front yard in containers. The only thing I prune on my peppers are the leaves that touch the ground in the pots.This year I put bamboo stakes in the pots and pushed the steaks into the ground through one of the drainage holes. I did this in hopes that my plants won't snap in a storm. They look great! They have flowers and have set quite a lot of fruit already. I am growing Jalapenos in my back yard and they have a similar set up with containers and stakes. The only leaves that were removed were the ones that touched the ground. I'm not even tempted to try pruning in the future. I started my peppers from seed the last week of February and am happy with their progress. I live in NE Pa. Thanks for the video.
My plants down here are like small trees compared to them plants. Harvested hundreds with hundreds more . I have to cage and stake them quite a bit. But NO pruning. Not necessary
I have seen videos of people cutting several inches off of their peppers when pruning. I could never do that, but I have pinched out the growth tip when the peppers were about 6 inches tall. It still sets the peppers back a little bit, but not as much as if I cut it back by several inches. I didn't do a head to head comparison with unpruned, but the plants weree bushier than my usual unpruned plants.
I’m gardening in South Central Michigan. I’ve never had a “chance” to try pruning my pepper plants, because the critters (mostly deer and woodchucks) do it for me; 3 separate times this year, as a matter of fact. Even after all that, I’m blessed and my plants are loaded with fruit (all 15 main stems per plant 🤣). Thanks for the informative video Luke!
I didn't prune my peppers – I usually don't. Our season is so short that some pepper varieties don't even get to produce before frost anyway, even when I start them in February, so it doesn't make sense. That said, one of those long-season peppers did get pruned, just not by me; the deer came along and trimmed it by half last week. 😢 Luckily I'd planted it in a pot, so I can bring it inside to overwinter and try again next year.
I do not prune my peppers, but I do give them like a haircut like the bottom lease. If I don’t, I don’t like I like mine to be clean on the bottom , I don’t let the leaves on the bottom touch the ground so I always cut the bottom leaves off and I do use a tomato cage or a steak to take them up because they do get pretty tall all my peppers are barely starting to come on and I’m in Texas I have I don’t know 20 or 30 peppers on our own banana peppers big jams jalapeño lemon drop mammoth, jalapeño habanero, Chito… I wanted to focus on peppers of all kinds this year a few tomatoes, not tomato tomatoes, more peppers.🫑🌶️🌱
I haven't pruned my peppers, and as a fellow Michigan grower, I don't think I would,em especially the bigger Bells. But the smaller peppers can be harvested earlier, having a similar result. I learned one year when I had a fantastic serrano pepper growing. Someone stopped by and said that they would take all of the peppers growing. I knew that I was never going to need almost any of them, so I picked probably 90% of them. Within weeks, I had double the peppers. The same lunatic said that they would take all of these. So I picked about 90% and said good luck. I thought I was done with the plant. But I got a third harvest! This may not be a big deal for a lot of people, but this was in Michigan!
Just stake it properly and you don't have to worry about the stem snapping. Don't prune peppers, unless you live in Hawaii, Florida, Queensland etc where the growing season is almost all year. In northern parts you only have from April – October outdoors really. Even if you don't have a frost, disease and die back usually sets in by November for most of us. I usually have entire branches dying off in October, so I need to be harvesting peppers by August. I have had plants get topped accidentally and I don't end up harvesting anything until like September/October. So yields end up being massively reduced. I tried pruning once before on purpose and within just a few weeks I had realised it was a mistake.
I'm in Vermont, and I prune peppers, as I overwinter them. I grow in dutch buckets and trim them back to 3-4 nodes and strip off all leaves the day before the first frost. Keep them dark, cool, and barely watered until February, then put them under lights until I put them outside when nights are above 50F. I did not prune some seedlings as an experiment this year, and my 2 and 3 year old peppers have dozens of mostly full grown peppers, while my first year plants have 3 or 4 medium and the pruned ones have 3 or 4 small ones. Pruning does delay the first harvest by about 2 weeks, but gives higher yield and makes a more compact and robust plant for overwintering.
I have only ever taken off dying leaves as needed. Mine grow in more of a pine tree shape, likely due to heat and high winds, but I do get a lot of of them once they start producing. My first pepper of the season is almost ready. 🎉 Lots of blossoms popping on all of my plants, so I'm excited! 😁😀
I don't prune, but I'm in South TX. My first harvest was around May 2nd. I'm on my 3rd harvest now & expect to get maybe 4 or 5 more. On the other hand, it was already triple digits here by May 2nd. Give and take in everything.!
My peppers are about 5 ft tall in se Oklahoma. I hope you keep following and let us know how the production is for the peppers through the rest of the season.
I agree with what you said about Bell Peppers, they are literally the slowest thing ever I literally gave up on them and switched to better alternatives.
I'm out here in Western ND, and our weather is from the Canadian Arctic belt, so much older than Michigan, but also much drier. Normally. This year, still drier, but raining at least 2 days per week, sometimes 3, so that's it's own issue. But, I pruned mine, whether I'm here or in Michigan, to force them to grow up. As for flowers.. I keep popping them off trying to force the plants to grow up. Our last Freeze this year was May 31st. Our first expected freeze is Sept 15th. So, I'll keep pushing for the upward growth. I do not want my peppers touching the dirt. Our wind is averaging 30mph so far this year. So the center stems are very thick and strong. But, I need them taller before I can get them fruit up. It's a race right now. But, over all, my garden is doing fantastic. Just very late.
Pruning them can stun them and yes it slows down the growth.. i dont prune any .. but i do cage them, so they arent going to fall down anytime soon . keep them happy feed them , they will love you right back and feed you 10 fold 🥰 🤗
I pinch my bell peppers super early. I get them branching where the second true leaves would be when they're still tiny. It stalls them out for a few days, but it beats waiting for those to grow only to cut them off. I mostly just grow bell and random small hot peppers. The Pumpkin Spice Jalapenos I got on MIGardener are doing really well unpruned. Like ten plus peppers on each plant.
I dont normally prune my peppers. Something pruned one of my bell pepper plants, but I decided to keep it to see how it does in comparison to the others that weren't touched. It has one bell pepper growing, no other blossoms, while the others have way more blossoms and a couple bell peppers on each! I agree based on these results, don't prune bell peppers, they do take a long time.
34 Comments
If you're planning on over wintering the pepper plant, would you prune the plant in the fall when you bring it in?
Can you do anything with the leaves
I love how youwalk is through the options and how you've made your decision! Helps us make an informed choice on our own!!! 💕😜
I am growing bell peppers for the third year in my front yard in containers. The only thing I prune on my peppers are the leaves that touch the ground in the pots.This year I put bamboo stakes in the pots and pushed the steaks into the ground through one of the drainage holes. I did this in hopes that my plants won't snap in a storm. They look great! They have flowers and have set quite a lot of fruit already. I am growing Jalapenos in my back yard and they have a similar set up with containers and stakes. The only leaves that were removed were the ones that touched the ground. I'm not even tempted to try pruning in the future. I started my peppers from seed the last week of February and am happy with their progress. I live in NE Pa. Thanks for the video.
My plants down here are like small trees compared to them plants. Harvested hundreds with hundreds more . I have to cage and stake them quite a bit. But NO pruning. Not necessary
Have never pruned peppers before but may try some next summer. Just came in from staking some that are getting too top heavy!
I have seen videos of people cutting several inches off of their peppers when pruning. I could never do that, but I have pinched out the growth tip when the peppers were about 6 inches tall. It still sets the peppers back a little bit, but not as much as if I cut it back by several inches. I didn't do a head to head comparison with unpruned, but the plants weree bushier than my usual unpruned plants.
I’m gardening in South Central Michigan. I’ve never had a “chance” to try pruning my pepper plants, because the critters (mostly deer and woodchucks) do it for me; 3 separate times this year, as a matter of fact. Even after all that, I’m blessed and my plants are loaded with fruit (all 15 main stems per plant 🤣).
Thanks for the informative video Luke!
I prune all my green/red/yellow and orange peppers and my jalapeño peppers. Every summer, my neighbors are jealous of my harvest! ALWAYS PRUNE!
I don't prune my peppers. I do use cages for them.
I stake my peppers and do not prune. I sometimes end up with 3-4 foot plants. Seems best for me.
Love watching your videos, I'm 37yrs old. $73,000 biweekly and I'm retired, this video have inspired me greatly in many ways!!!!💖
I don't top mine, personally but it is nice to see the results of doing so. Nice comparison. Appreciate it!🫡🌱
Thankyou Luke for all you do. God bless you and your family. 😅
I grow sweet frying peppers and Bell peppers. I do not prune any of my peppers.
I didn't prune my peppers – I usually don't. Our season is so short that some pepper varieties don't even get to produce before frost anyway, even when I start them in February, so it doesn't make sense.
That said, one of those long-season peppers did get pruned, just not by me; the deer came along and trimmed it by half last week. 😢 Luckily I'd planted it in a pot, so I can bring it inside to overwinter and try again next year.
I do not prune my peppers, but I do give them like a haircut like the bottom lease. If I don’t, I don’t like I like mine to be clean on the bottom , I don’t let the leaves on the bottom touch the ground so I always cut the bottom leaves off and I do use a tomato cage or a steak to take them up because they do get pretty tall all my peppers are barely starting to come on and I’m in Texas I have I don’t know 20 or 30 peppers on our own banana peppers big jams jalapeño lemon drop mammoth, jalapeño habanero, Chito… I wanted to focus on peppers of all kinds this year a few tomatoes, not tomato tomatoes, more peppers.🫑🌶️🌱
I haven't pruned my peppers, and as a fellow Michigan grower, I don't think I would,em especially the bigger Bells. But the smaller peppers can be harvested earlier, having a similar result. I learned one year when I had a fantastic serrano pepper growing. Someone stopped by and said that they would take all of the peppers growing. I knew that I was never going to need almost any of them, so I picked probably 90% of them. Within weeks, I had double the peppers. The same lunatic said that they would take all of these. So I picked about 90% and said good luck. I thought I was done with the plant. But I got a third harvest! This may not be a big deal for a lot of people, but this was in Michigan!
Just stake it properly and you don't have to worry about the stem snapping. Don't prune peppers, unless you live in Hawaii, Florida, Queensland etc where the growing season is almost all year. In northern parts you only have from April – October outdoors really. Even if you don't have a frost, disease and die back usually sets in by November for most of us. I usually have entire branches dying off in October, so I need to be harvesting peppers by August. I have had plants get topped accidentally and I don't end up harvesting anything until like September/October. So yields end up being massively reduced. I tried pruning once before on purpose and within just a few weeks I had realised it was a mistake.
I'm in Vermont, and I prune peppers, as I overwinter them. I grow in dutch buckets and trim them back to 3-4 nodes and strip off all leaves the day before the first frost. Keep them dark, cool, and barely watered until February, then put them under lights until I put them outside when nights are above 50F. I did not prune some seedlings as an experiment this year, and my 2 and 3 year old peppers have dozens of mostly full grown peppers, while my first year plants have 3 or 4 medium and the pruned ones have 3 or 4 small ones. Pruning does delay the first harvest by about 2 weeks, but gives higher yield and makes a more compact and robust plant for overwintering.
I have never pruned my peppers. I don't get very many as it is.
Pleeeeeeease don't prune me! 😁
I have only ever taken off dying leaves as needed. Mine grow in more of a pine tree shape, likely due to heat and high winds, but I do get a lot of of them once they start producing. My first pepper of the season is almost ready. 🎉 Lots of blossoms popping on all of my plants, so I'm excited! 😁😀
I don't prune, but I'm in South TX. My first harvest was around May 2nd. I'm on my 3rd harvest now & expect to get maybe 4 or 5 more. On the other hand, it was already triple digits here by May 2nd. Give and take in everything.!
Never have tried pepper pruning….get great yields. 6b Connecticut
If you start the peppers sooner in the season indoors and prune, it should yield more fruits at the same time as unpruned.
My peppers are about 5 ft tall in se Oklahoma. I hope you keep following and let us know how the production is for the peppers through the rest of the season.
I agree with what you said about Bell Peppers, they are literally the slowest thing ever I literally gave up on them and switched to better alternatives.
Don’t prune, in greenhouse so wind not an issue.usda zone 7
I'm out here in Western ND, and our weather is from the Canadian Arctic belt, so much older than Michigan, but also much drier. Normally. This year, still drier, but raining at least 2 days per week, sometimes 3, so that's it's own issue. But, I pruned mine, whether I'm here or in Michigan, to force them to grow up. As for flowers.. I keep popping them off trying to force the plants to grow up. Our last Freeze this year was May 31st. Our first expected freeze is Sept 15th. So, I'll keep pushing for the upward growth. I do not want my peppers touching the dirt. Our wind is averaging 30mph so far this year. So the center stems are very thick and strong. But, I need them taller before I can get them fruit up. It's a race right now. But, over all, my garden is doing fantastic. Just very late.
Pruning them can stun them and yes it slows down the growth.. i dont prune any .. but i do cage them, so they arent going to fall down anytime soon . keep them happy feed them , they will love you right back and feed you 10 fold 🥰 🤗
I stake my green peppers…problem solved…always have a great harvest
I pinch my bell peppers super early. I get them branching where the second true leaves would be when they're still tiny. It stalls them out for a few days, but it beats waiting for those to grow only to cut them off. I mostly just grow bell and random small hot peppers. The Pumpkin Spice Jalapenos I got on MIGardener are doing really well unpruned. Like ten plus peppers on each plant.
I dont normally prune my peppers. Something pruned one of my bell pepper plants, but I decided to keep it to see how it does in comparison to the others that weren't touched. It has one bell pepper growing, no other blossoms, while the others have way more blossoms and a couple bell peppers on each! I agree based on these results, don't prune bell peppers, they do take a long time.